What's Up Doc? (1972)

What’s Up Doc? (1972)

   

After a long week at work or a busy weekend, a good laugh is often just what the doctor ordered and a good old screwball comedy fits the bill. These really kicked off during the depression era with most being made between 1931 and 1949 but there were however a few made later between the 50’s and 70’s and a handful or so up to 2016.  But our review for today is from 1972 and as one of the movie posters reveal, it was made like they used to be made.  There is even a car chase which consumed about 1 quarter of the movie’s budget just to film, so we have something for everyone.  A love story, great comedy and a top car-chase that also includes a sequence down Lombard Street in San Francisco (the crookedest street in the world)!  Does it get any better?

The Peter Bogdanovich directed movie starts off with the written one-liner “Once upon a time there was a plaid overnight case….” And then begins to set the scene where there are four of these plaid bags owned by different people each of them containing something of importance.  One bag is owned by Howard Banister (Ryan O’Neal) that contain his igneous tambula rocks.  He also has a very annoying fiancée Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn).  The second bag belongs to the rich Mrs Van Hoskins (Mabel Albertson) and is filled jewels.  The third bag is owned by a “Mr Smith” (Michael Murphy) and it contains top-secret government documents that he wishes to reveal to the world.  And finally the fourth bag is owned by Judy Maxwell (Barbara Streisand) which contains her personal belongings….and a dictionary.  Judy gets the hots for Howard, hotel staff want Mrs Van Hoskins jewels and another agent wants to get the top-secret documents back in the governments possession.  As you could imagine this is going to be a blast as bags get mixed up and identities get confused.  On top of this, Howard is a bit of a disorganised cluts who is often in a world of his own and Judy seems to be one of those people whose middle name is trouble!  So all up you have a movie that is bound to bring a good ol laugh to your day.

As mentioned above there is a car chase at the end which is really funny, extremely well done and original with the vehicles used.  Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Streisand are perfect in their roles and really could not get any better and in fact all the other characters are perfectly suited as well which combined with the great script makes for a wonderful movie.

The Bluray reviewed here was imported from USA through Amazon (as with virtually all Warner Bros. Bluray's it's region free so it can be played outside of USA without the need for a special multi region player) as the DVD or Bluray doesn’t appear to be readily available within Australia however there is a Barbara Steisand collection that contains two of her movies including this one so you may find it on eBay but it looks like the below however the quality of the image is unknown.

The image quality of the Bluray is sharp, clear and contrasty with little to complain about.  The audio is DTS HD Master Audio Mono and is clear and pop/crackle free.  The disc also has the following extra’s:

• Scene Specific commentary by Barbara Steisand
• Movie Commentary by the Director Peter Bogdanovich
• A featurette on Screwball Comedies
• Theatrical Trailer

I can’t recommend this movie enough and is a personal favourite of mine from even my younger years when I first saw it and would sit in my top ten comedies.  Overall it’s just a blast from the past with its classic screwball comedy, great actors and a fantastic car chase!  

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